1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printers having normal and mirror image printing functions.
2. Background Art
Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Hei 7-164680 discloses a printer capable of printing information in a mirror image on a printing tape. In this printer, a printing mode setting member is provided on a tape cassette that encloses a printing tape to set a printing mode corresponding to the type of the tape, and a printing mode determining member corresponding to the printing mode setting member is provided in the printer to determine whether the printing tape enclosed within the cassette should be printed in a mirror printing mode or in a normal image printing mode.
According to this printer, if the printing tape enclosed within the tape cassette corresponds to the mirror image printing, the printer sets the mirror image printing mode automatically to print a mirror image on the printing tape.
When any particular information is printed in a mirror image on a transfer tape for transfer to an object, a resulting mirror image appears as a reversal of a normal printed image. Thus, it is difficult to accurately confirm the content of the printed mirror image. Assume that a symbol image of barcodes or two-dimensional codes is printed in a mirror image. In this case, even if a user tries to read information contained in the symbol image and then confirm its content before transferring it to an object, using a mobile telephone having a two-dimensional code reading function, the mobile telephone can only read a symbol image printed in the normal image and cannot deal with a symbol image printed in the mirror image. Thus, the content of the printed mirror image cannot be confirmed.